ABDELKADER GOES TO SCHOOL
Red Wings player writes senior term paper on hockey analytics for university degree
DETROIT — Justin Abdelkader was determined to complete his university degree, even after he’d made the grade as an NHLer with the Detroit Red Wings.
“It’s always been important in my family, my dad being an educator, my sister now being an educator,” Abdelkader said. “It’s something I worked so hard for those three years that I was at school (at Michigan State), that it was something that I wanted to finish and not just throw those credits to the side.
“I knew that the longer I put it off, the harder it would be to finish. The first couple of years (in pro hockey) I stayed on campus and took some classes and followed up the remaining four years.”
The part of the equation that Abdelkader hadn’t anticipated was that, by furthering his education, he’d also be furthering his education in hockey.
In completing his business management degree at Michigan State, he wrote his senior term paper about hockey analytics.
The Detroit left winger admitted that prior to delving into the likes of Corsi, Fenwick and such, he knew little about hockey’s so-called fancy stats other than the quirky handles given to this analysis of the game he plays for a living.
“It was fun to learn about the different aspects and different things you can use,” Abdelkader said. “Obviously, analytics is becoming a bigger part of the game.”
Abdelkader opted to take a few examples from his peer group of NHLers and apply analytics to each of them.
“I didn’t do myself,” Abdelkader said. “I did players around the league who I thought would be interesting to do.
“I got some help from my agent (Don Meehan) on the paper, because (agents) use a lot of analytics, too.”
As a school of thought, some hockey people are deep into analytics, while others want to deep six the whole process.
After studying the subject, Abdelkader remains on the fence in terms of assessing its inherent value.
“I think some of it can definitely be used. And I think some of it is a lot of stats, and just because the stats say one thing, a player’s performance on the ice can say different things,” Abdelkader said. “I think there’s obviously parts of it that can be irrelevant. But I think some of it can be used, for sure.”
He also doubts there’s a coach in the game today who is going to allow what it says on a spreadsheet to overrule what he feels in his gut.
“When push comes to shove, you’re going to put the player on the ice that you’re comfortable with, that’s playing good,” Abdelkader said.
“I don’t think coaches are going to have a sheet of paper on the bench and say, ‘OK, this guy’s analytics are this and he does this, so I’m going to put him on the ice.’ It’s going to be more the coach’s feel.”
At the same time, Abdelkader isn’t about to scoff at what analytics can determine about a player. He thinks it’s a valuable tool in terms of assessment post-game, or even after the season.
“It can vary and it can be tough at the end of a game to judge a player strictly on what his analytics say,” Abdelkader said.
His ultimate determination is that it’s another useful assessment tool but not the be-all and end-all.